The sign is red, it sits on the right side of Reservoir Road, and it reads "Heyward Community Forest." The City of Charlottesville's own directions admit the gravel lot behind it is easy to miss. If you end up at the top of a large gravel hill looking down at the reservoir, you have gone too far.
That small lot at 1730 Reservoir Road has been the main entrance to Ragged Mountain for more than a year. Until the reservoir project finishes, it will stay that way. From Bellair, the drive is the familiar one west on Fontaine Avenue and onto Reservoir Road. The difference is where you stop. Park lower, walk up through Heyward's newer forest, and you reach a lake that RWSA plans to start raising by twelve feet as early as New Year's Day, if winter stream flows allow.
The upper lot closed a year ago and has not reopened
On October 6, 2025, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority closed Reservoir Road to public traffic from Holiday Trails Lane to the upper parking lot by the dam. Trail restrictions on the northern, western and southern sides of the reservoir started the same day. The work is the Ragged Mountain Reservoir Pool Fill Project, which RWSA awarded to Faulconer Construction Company in June 2025 for $11,018,050.
The most recent trail-access notice came in a City of Charlottesville release dated July 9, 2026. Tree clearing on the eastern side was finished, so parts of the trail network there reopened for hiking and shoreline fishing. Everywhere else stayed closed.
| Area | Status per the July 9, 2026 release | Scheduled next step |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Front Trail | Partially reopened | Full reopening with project completion |
| Peninsula Trail | Partially reopened | Full reopening with project completion |
| Upper Trail | Parts reopened | Full reopening with project completion |
| Northern, western and southern sides | Closed, with new signs marking closed sections | Full reopening with project completion |
| Watercraft on the reservoir | Restricted while barging continues | Tied to the end of construction |
| Upper parking lot | Closed since October 6, 2025 | Tied to the end of construction |
The July release also says new wayfinding signs have gone up and that trail access is from the lower parking lot. On the Ragged Mountain Natural Area page, the City is more specific. Trail users can park at the lower Heyward Forest lot and walk into the Ragged Mountain trails over Roundtop Mountain.
Getting in, step by step
- Head west on Fontaine Avenue and turn onto Reservoir Road. The City's directions sheet says the lower lot sits across from Camp Holiday Trails.
- Look for the red "Heyward Community Forest" sign on the right at 1730 Reservoir Road and turn into the gravel lot.
- If you reach the big gravel hill above the reservoir, turn around. You missed the lot.
- Walk over Roundtop Mountain into Ragged Mountain, and obey every closure sign along the way.
Roundtop is Heyward ground first
In 2019, the City bought the first 142 acres next to Ragged Mountain for $600,000. A USDA Community Forest Program grant covered $562,500 and City funds covered $37,500, according to the Piedmont Environmental Council. The owner, Louisa Heyward, agreed to donate the rest of the property's value. In March 2021, an adjoining five-acre parcel was added, which the PEC says improved access and connections.
The City calls the property undeveloped forest with rock outcrops and mountainous terrain, set aside for environmental education, forest preservation and trails. Its trails were built recently through a joint community effort, and volunteers are still adding more. The Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club names two of them, Misty Mountain Hop and Voodoo Child. The club describes the area as steep and multipurpose, with climbs up to Round Top and Song Mountain.
That multipurpose label marks a real difference between the two properties. CBS19 reported that Heyward's first trails opened in 2020 with biking allowed. The same report says Ragged Mountain's trails are pedestrian-only under the City and County settlement. Ragged Mountain also posts no swimming and no dogs. The Roundtop route crosses from one property into the other, so a walk that begins under Heyward's rules ends under Ragged Mountain's. Check the signs at the lot before you go.
The City still plans one more piece for Heyward, a trail along the stream beside Reservoir Road. It would let people reach both Heyward and Ragged Mountain without walking, jogging or biking on upper Reservoir Road. The City lists it as future volunteer work, so for now Roundtop is the way across.
To learn the forest with a guide, Charlottesville Parks & Recreation ran a fall series of roughly two-mile guided hikes at Heyward. Urban Forester Steve Gaines is the media contact, and the hikes met at the lot at 5 p.m. on September 2, October 7 and November 4. The trails are natural-surface with some moderate climbs.
Why the shoreline looks cleared out right now
Hikers who have reached the eastern shore this fall have seen open, stripped banks, cleared to make room for a pool level twelve feet higher. The dam finished in 2014 was built to hold a pool level of 683 feet. Under the 2012 project agreement, though, the reservoir was filled only to 671 feet. In December 2023, Charlottesville City Council, the Albemarle County Service Authority board and the RWSA board approved an amendment that lets RWSA fill to the full 683 feet.
Every tree inside those twelve vertical feet had to go before the water rises. Felling ran from November 2025 to March 31, 2026, timed to the inactive season of the northern long-eared bat. RWSA chose to move clearing equipment and fallen trees on floating barges. Building temporary access roads would have risked damaging or destroying the trails. Those barges are why paddling is still off-limits. RWSA's update of September 10, 2026, says fallen trees are still being barged across the reservoir, with work continuing on the northern, western and southern sides.
The project is close to done. In the packet for RWSA's October 27, 2026 board meeting, the Ragged Mountain pool raise is listed at 90 percent complete, with December 2026 still shown as the finish date.
What New Year's Day is scheduled to change
RWSA's schedule gives December 31, 2026 as the tentative completion date for construction. Next to that date it adds, "All trails to fully reopen." That is about eight weeks from the day this post publishes. Construction dates slip, so the posted signs at the lot are the final word.
The water comes after the trails. Filling to the new level is scheduled to start January 1, 2027, but only if at least 30 million gallons a day are spilling from the Sugar Hollow Reservoir. A dry winter could delay the start. Once the reservoir is full, it will hold 700 million gallons more than it does now, for 2.1 billion gallons in total. The trails along the current shoreline would end up underwater, so City staff and volunteers are rebuilding those sections on higher ground. The goal is to have them in place when the full system reopens.
Three other changes are coming. RWSA says the project includes improved boat ramps, a larger lake surface for paddlers and anglers, and added parking along Reservoir Road. That new parking may change how people get in later. For the rest of this year, a Ragged Mountain walk from Bellair still starts at the red sign and the gravel lot at 1730 Reservoir Road.
We pay attention to small details like this one, including which turn on Reservoir Road leads to the trails this season. We bring the same local knowledge to every move our clients make. If you want to talk through what's changing in Charlottesville's west-side corridor, the Bobby and Alex Schwartz Team would be glad to hear from you.
